Using Hours rather than dollars is more like helping a friend or family member. It puts relationship back in exchanges and gives people options when there isn’t enough money for what is wanted.

Think of it as a game that uses play money. This money is in Hours. If I offer to cook a meal for 2 Hours and you want this, we talk and work out the arrangement. After the meal, I get 2 Hours credit and you are debited that time which you owe to the members of the Time Exchange. You owe me nothing.

Continuing the game idea, if I need a haircut, I could invite my friend Joan to join the game and cut my hair. Joan joining the game makes it larger and more powerful. You got your meal. I’m going to get my haircut. You could place a free ad in the Marketplace & Time Exchange to do errands (or whatever you choose) to clear the 2 Hours you owe. Trading locally in Hours leaves more dollars in our pockets to spend on items we can't get locally and connects us in ways that would not have happened otherwise.

This combo of people being more connected locally and being able to make natural exchanges that have not been monetized, fosters a closer-knit, more loving community. There are many expressions of this. Jimmy Hendrix said: When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

Our simple approach to solving big problems – using the social media technology to create many, many local connections, including exchanges – is aligned with many sources of wisdom. Some examples:

With regard to connections, sociologist Robert Putnam (The Good Place) said that people need community gathering and hangout places, as well as a workplace and a home.

If a community offers freedom and security and a means of meeting up, then community takes on a life of its own and people can share and get along, and become tighter with one another. This sense of connectedness, combined with social networks, produces what is known as social capital or the “norm of reciprocity” -- for example, when neighbors keep an eye on each other’s houses and visit one another. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community

With regard to time-based exchanges, Bernard Lietaer, the co-architect of the Euro, said that the big problems of the day, like the need for constant growth on a finite planet, will not be solved until we have diverse ways of making exchanges. He advocates for complementary local currencies, such as are offered in our Marketplace & Time Exchange. Currently, there are more than 275 TimeBanks (or Time Exchanges) in the United States.

Connect and grow your local social network

Easy communication(a) within your interest group. Each group has its
own email. You simply use this address as you would any
other email address, and it goes to everyone in your interest group.
Each group’s emails are archived on its bulletin board. The
group can be public or private, and can have a calendar, photo
albums, and documents.

Express what you’re about right here in your village, On
your proﬁle page, describe yourself and give your links and images. Say what you’d like to be acknowledged for.

Have richer everyday experiences through building a
stronger local community.

Take a step by sharing a tool or offering a ride or recycling
something worthwhile.

Or take it ten steps further and do what Sally and Ana and
their friends did in launching and running a local vibrant ﬁlm
festival. Or as Cheryl and her friends did in building and
running a high energy, expanding food co-op. And, as
they can do, use this site as one of the many tools needed to
build this big and important effort to nourish a more
satisfying, better, stronger, happier, richer community.

(b) from your group to other groups and the village. Launch your local social network in your village, and connect it to
the local social networks of other local groups. Use the bulletin
boards and calendars to announce events, seek volunteers,
organize, make connections.

Use our marketplace to Buy, Sell, Trade, Share, Recycle, and Gift right in your village.